Thread by @speechieLO

Today’s #TuesdayArticle is by @drbonniesinger & Dr Anthony Bashir (if he's on Twitter, please let me know!). If I’m honest, I added it to my reading list because I liked the title.
(I also wanted to learn about working memory!)
pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/20…
1/10

Note: it was published in 2018 & uses the old term- SLI (Specific Language Impairment). We now use DLD (Developmental Language Disorder) #devlangdis.
More here about the different terms via @tiffanyphogan dldandme.org/terminology/
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Working Memory is used to hold in mind and mentally manipulate information for short periods of time, for a specific purpose. For children with SLI (or DLD #devlangdis), verbal working memory can be vulnerable.
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In formal assessments, it may be possible to isolate skills like language or working memory. But in the classroom, and day to day life, they are difficult to separate. Working memory both contrains, and is constrained by other aspects of cognition, language and experience.
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The article presents 5 guiding principles for the development of interventions for children with limited verbal working memory abilities. It also notes a lack of evidence-based interventions for working memory-there’s no quick and easy fix.
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There's lots to learn from the 5 Principles- I won’t attempt to summarise them here- I would recommend getting a copy of the article if you can.
6/10

I appreciated the discussion of external factors that influence Verbal Working Memory- things like interruptions, background noise, the cognitive load of the task, possibly the speaking style (incl. rate) of the teacher.
6/10

An important internal factor to consider is anxiety, as children become aware of their own language limitations.
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#SLPeeps & teachers can be mindful of:
the who (client factors)
the what (information to be remembered)
the how (the demands of the task)
the where (environmental factors)
And hopefully work to keep the “Wait… what???” moment at bay.
9/10

My conclusion is this- Working Memory is complex, but there are lots of things that we can consider and strategies we can try as SLPs to support children who are having trouble with both language and working memory. Thanks for following my #TuesdayArticle thread!
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